Another emergency post, simply because of one (1) item that I needed to shout out about from the rooftops!!!! I am, as with last time, not going to go too in-depth with these, but here we go!
First, if you go to Lunar Distribution, you can find the catalogs for what Lunar distributes: DC, Image, Titan, and the larger catalog. If you want to find Marvel and Dark Horse and Boom! and IDW and things Lunar doesn’t distribute, you’re going to have to Google them yourself. Sorry! Let’s start with DC, because that has the one (1) item that I wanted to shout about!
DC!
There’s a Superman 2026 Annual: Year One Thousand, and the solicit text is superb: “At the end of DC K.O., Superman became King Omega with the powers of a god. But after pushing Darkseid back to the Absolute World, Superman rejected the Heart of Apokolips … and went missing.” Dang, that’s a lot. I didn’t read K.O., because why would I, but I kind of assumed the Absolute World would somehow connect with the “regular” DCU. The crossover is coming, people, like a runaway train!!!!!
I didn’t love Maw, which Jude Ellison S. Doyle wrote, but he’s doing Clayface: Celebrity Dirt, which is about Basil Karlo and sounds pretty keen. It’s drawn by Fran Galán, who’s quite good, so I’m looking forward to this.
I worry about Detective Comics 2026 Annual, because we have Batman being accused of a political assassination on a distant planet, which makes me think of Jason Aaron’s Off-World, which was a big ol’ piece of garbage. Why would anyone think Batman — BATMAN!!!! — would be on distant planets murdering people? I mean, this is only 48 pages long, and it seems Taylor would need to spend 30 pages just telling us how some alien believes Batman would do that. Anyway, Lobo and Batman blah blah blah. Nicola Scott is drawing it, so it will look very cool.
Dark Knights of Steel is back, with a second series and Heir to the Sea, which is about Dark Knights of Steel Aquaman. Fun stuff!
100 Bullets is back. Blech.
There’s a hardcover of Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham, and I’m torn. DC does this — for some of their higher-end books (the ones that aren’t just regular series), they take their damned time collecting the series, and then they take even longer getting a softcover out. This is 35 bucks, but goddamn, Rafael Grampá is awesome. Speaking of Batman, City of Madness gets a softcover — it’s not a bad comic, just a bit odd — and Killing Time also gets a softcover. Dare I buy a Tom King Batman comic? DARE I?!?!?!?
I love the solicitation for the third Rick Veitch Swamp Thing collection: “The final chapter to one of Swamp Thing’s most legendary saga collects Swamp Thing #80-87, Swamp Thing Annual #5, and Swamp Thing 1989 #1-4 (the lost Swamp Thing #88-91 issues).” Did you catch that? “Lost”? Really, DC? How about “suppressed”? That seems more accurate. Anyway, this should be nifty.
Ok, tucked away in the upper left-hand corner on page 55 of the DC catalog, we find The DC Universe by Keith Giffen. THIS is why I’m doing this post, people! Some cool stuff: Legion of Substitute Heroes Special, The Big Book of Urban Legends (a Piranha Press comic?!?!?), and some other neat stuff. Then, the final two entries: Ambush Bug #1-4, which … has this ever been collected? and HOLY SHIT THE HECKLER?!?!?!? Yes, The Heckler gets collected in this sucker, and I say IT’S ABOUT FUCKING TIME. Now, I don’t know where Ambush Bug Nothing Special is, but still … THE FUTHERMUCKIN’ HECKLER!!!!!!
Marvel!
I’m doing these quick and dirty, so I don’t want to post images, but what the hell is this, Kaare Andrews?
This DNX thing sounds wildly dumb. Oh well.
Predator vs. The Planet of the Apes. Yep.
Dark Horse!
There’s a Black Beetle Omnibus coming out, which is pretty keen. Why doesn’t Francavilla do more comics? Why doesn’t DC get him to do Batman ’72? WHY?!?!?!
Kristen Gudsnick’s Touched by a Demon gets collected. If Travis ever read this blog anymore, he’d probably be pretty keen on this!
IDW/Alien Books!
There’s a Zorro Remastered Edition coming out — 256 pages of glorious Alex Toth for 50 bucks, plus a story by Chaykin/Risso. Oh yeah!
Dynamite!
Kelly Thompson is writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She’s very geeked about it!
Image!
There’s a fancy hardcover of Skinbreaker for 50 bucks. I haven’t read this entire thing yet, but the first couple of issues were pretty cool, and Finch’s art is stupendous.
Starhenge is starting up again, so we get a collection of the first story, which is nice. Liam Sharp’s art is amazing on this book.
Mad Cave!
Hey, we’re getting a collection of Flash Gordon: The Movie Adaptation by Bruce Jones and Al Williamson. Man, this looks keen.
I mean, of course I’m getting The Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre trade. I know this sounds like something riding on its title, but it really does look neat.
All right, there’s a lot of other cool stuff in the various catalogs, but nothing that I desperately need to tell you about. Go find stuff yourself, but be sure to get that Keith Giffen collection. It’s THE HECKLER!!!!!
I use comicreleases.com. They have Marvel, DC, Image, Dynamite, Fantagraphics, IDW, Mad Cave, Dark Horse, Boom, Oni Press, Titan and Vault.
What I like about it that it goes from Omnibus to HC to Tpb to single issues. With Marvel and DC I´m only interested in Omnibusses and Absolute Editions nowadays so I know fast if there´s something interesting.
You should be crazy to buy single issues priced $ 3,99 and $ 4,99 imo.
The Black Beetle omnibus and Sgt. Rock by Joe Kubert look really nice.
I agree with Eric that Comic Releases has the best formatting for solicits. League of Comic Geeks isn’t bad either.
It’s taken this long for Gargoyle of Gotham to be solicited because the last issue hasn’t come out yet! I’ll order the hardcover, because DC’s paperback policy on Black Label stuff has been haphazard.
The Giffen collection is very tempting, even though I own the issues for most of it. (I’m still missing Heckler #6!) I’m also tempted by the Sgt. Rock book. And I believe the facsimile of Justice League #200 will be treasury-sized.
Of note: The DC/Marvel crossovers are coming out in trade here. I’ll have to buy ’em again because they include digital-only stories, like Aquaman vs Jeff!
I want to shout out Lavender Jack vol 2 from Dark Horse, by Dan Schkade. These are collections of his Webtoon from some years back, but I just recently read volume 1 and *loved* it. A Scarlet Pimpernel/Arsene Lupin gentleman thief vigilante vs. an older female Poirot vs. evil capitalists in a diverse alternate early 20th century. I tore through it, and can’t wait for the next one.
Also, the TPB of Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees v2 from IDW. The first volume was my favorite comic of that year. It’s Dexter by way of the Busy World of Richard Scarry. Gorgeous art.
From Image I’m definitely on board for Assorted Crisis Events v2, and Wrestle Heist from Kyle Starks.
For some reason I’ve started collecting Bad Idea, including their backlist. I’m not happy they’re reprinting Banana Number One after I paid too much to get my hands on the original printing, but I still recommend it. Kevin Maguire draws a crazy space banana.
I thought Gargoyle of Gotham had finished. Silly me!
My retailer is grabbing me a copy of Lavender Jack, because for some reason I didn’t order it, even though I very much dig Schkade. So I’ll get it fairly soon!
This is a drive-by check, so I don’t have time to mention second volumes! Both BtTWNS and ACE were very good, though, although I’m not positive Beneath the Trees needed a sequel.
Also I should mention: As a guy who reads a lot of Tom King, I did not care for Killing Time.
Sadly that DNX cover is about on par for Marvel just lately, garbage art by second rate artists.
I’m only picking up Infernal Hulk, Fantastic Four and Moon Knight.
Well, Andrews can do very good art, but occasionally, he does … stuff like that.
Hot take, apparently: I like the art!
I’m just in a bit of a funk with Marvel at the moment.
It’s the first time since the late 70’s that I’m thinking of dropping every title.
I’m tired of all the endless reboots every time a new creative team take over.
Conrad: Well, you picked some good ones. Ryan North’s Fantastic Four is like my Platonic ideal of a Marvel superhero comic. I’ve been enjoying Hulk. The other one I’ve been buying is The Ultimates. And I’m waiting for some kind of giant hardcover of Al Ewing’s Thor. Otherwise, despite pumping out an obscene amount of product, Marvel isn’t speaking to me at the moment.
His Iron Fist was gorgeous. But yeah, really inconsistent, and he uses a lot of photo backgrounds and AI and stuff which I do not care for.
That DNX was baaaad.
The Giffen looks better than I thought — I wondered if it would include his awful run on Amethyst.
I’m glad they finally brought out that Rick Veitch time-traveling Swampie arc. I’m following it on the app.
I enjoyed 100 Bullets when it started. The longer it went on, the more it became indistinguishable from a standard crime comic. Plus most of the male characters looked interchangeable and I could never keep track of them.